introduced vegetables and fruit trees from Spain; amongst these the vine and the olive, from which excellent wine and oil were made, all through that part of the country.
Amongst the monks destined to these distant missions, were those of San Fernando. There, banished from the world, deprived of all the advantages of civilization, they devoted themselves to the task of taming the wild Indians; introduced marriage amongst them, taught them to cultivate the ground, together with some of the most simple arts; assisted their wants, reproved their sins, and transplanted the beneficent doctrines of Christianity amongst them; using no arms but the influence which religion and kindness, united with extreme patience, had over their stubborn natures; and making what Humboldt, in speaking of the Jesuit Missions, calls "a pacific conquest" of the country.
Many were the hardships which these poor men endured; changed from place to place; at one time ordered to some barren shore, where it was necessary to recommence their labors,—at another, recalled to the capital by orders of the prelate, in conjunction with the wishes of their brethren, among whom there was a species of congress, called by them a capitulo. No increase of rank, no reward, no praise, inspired their labors; their only recompense was their intimate conviction of doing good to their fellow-creatures.
In the archives of the convent there still exist papers, proving the hardships which these men underwent; the zeal with which they applied themselves
